10/06/08 – River Cole Flooding Update

Following the Environment Agency reporting back over the flooding that occurred in July 07 this February the Council has been reviewing the recommendations and looking at the options.

The River Cole issue stems from the wide of the gaps under the two bridges that cross it (Sywell and Merlin). The capacity is approx only 2/3 that of the gap under the A419 bridge.

The Environment Agency believe these two bridges are acting like dams and causing the River Cole to breach it’s banks. This also means the storm water drains which flow in to the River Cole are not able to take water away from Nythe, Covingham and Coleview, thus providing localised flooding in these areas.

The Council has started the process of structural analysis of the bridges and looking to cost options on how these gaps can be widened.

Once this information is available, then the work will need to be planned in to the capital program. At the moment there I have no firm dates when the analysis will be complete and when the work might happen as this latter part can not be planned until the former completes.

Rest assured the work is progressing and once we have the analysis completed, myself and fellow ward Councillors will look to put pressure on the Council to have the work completed as soon as possible. We need to be mindful that the costs could run to many